I'm going to turn to Matthew
chapter 16 again. I'm going to read these verses,
but today I want to read a few more. Matthew 16 verse 13. When Jesus came to the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist. Some, he lies. and others Jeremiah's,
or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged
he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus
the Christ. I read those verses last week.
But now listen, from that time forth, began Jesus to shew unto
his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer
many things of the elders and the chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter
took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee,
Lord. This shall not be unto thee.
But he turned, that is, Christ turned, and said unto Peter,"
This is the same Peter he'd just spoken to. Couldn't have been
moments earlier. Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou
art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that
be of God, but those that be of men. As I told you last Sunday,
this Sunday, I want to talk about the rock of the church. The rock of the church. Now, are you ready? of the church
is not mentioned as such in this passage. The rock of the church is not
mentioned as the rock of the church in my text. The church
is comprised of many rocks. Did you know that? Turn to 1
Peter chapter 2 1st Peter chapter 2 Wherefore
laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies
and all evil speakings And as I usually point out when I read
that verse the reason is is because they're so prevalent in us That's
why we got to lay them aside most people think or under the
false impression that when God saves you, all of these things
are gone. It's just not so. That's why you've got to lay
them aside. Because they're still there. If they weren't still
there, you wouldn't have to lay them aside. As newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Now if
you haven't, as Joe has ably pointed out, these things would
be grievous to you. And I concur with Joe. Years
ago when I was in religion, other than a few little spurts and
fits, most of the time doing what I was supposed to do that
was called Christian was a chore. Well, I got to do this. But after
God Almighty saved me, it was a delight and a pleasure to even
think I could possibly do any of those things. If so be that
you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming?
That is, to the Lord. to whom coming as unto a living
stone, not just the rock, we will see he is a rock, but unto
a living stone, disallowed indeed of men. Yeah, that's true. Still
true today. Disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. There's the living stone. It's
an odd statement, but nevertheless it's true. The living stone,
ye also as lively. stones. Do not think of the church
as a stick house. Do you know what I mean by that?
A stick house is one you set up a foundation, usually a block
or whatever, set on concrete, then you build the rest of it
out of wood. Two-by-fours has walls, all of that. The church
of God is a stone building. It's a stone building. He is
the living stone and we are what? Lively stones. Even we, the people
Peter's writing to. We also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house. and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore,
also it is contained in scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a what? A chief cornerstone. You see that? Elect, precious,
and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Who
is that chief cornerstone? That's Christ. Under you therefore
which believe, he is precious, but under them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed." In other words,
we don't need Him in the foundation. We don't need Him. But unto you
therefore which believe He is precious, but unto them which
be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling
and a rock, there you see the word rock, petra, a rock of what? Of a fence. a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient.
And it says, whereunto also they were appointed. Who appointed
them to this? God did. Behold, I lay in Zion
this kind of stone and this kind of rock. That's just the way
it is. But ye are a chosen generation. Aren't you glad there's a but
ye's out there somewhere? But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous lights. Therefore, as I say again, the
rock of the church is not mentioned as such in the text for this
morning. The rock, the church rather,
is comprised of many rocks, many stones, more properly I should
say. In our text, Christ mentions
Peter, Petros, and Christ mentions this rock, that is this Petra,
but he never speaks of the rock. Now, beware when making haste
to refute error. I didn't say beware refuting
error. I didn't say, definitely didn't
say not to refute error, but I said beware when making haste
to refute error. Most of you know that this passage
in Matthew chapter 16 is the touchstone for the Roman Catholic
Church's teaching that Peter was the first pope, and it doesn't
teach anything like that. But I'm here to tell you it still
does teach that Peter is this rock. Peter is this rock. And yet Protestantism, most every
commentary you will read by a Protestant, somehow is trying to make what
Christ said, and thou art Petros, and upon this Petra, that somehow
he meant somebody or something different other than Peter. And
for years I even struggled with that. That Christ was referring
to himself as the Petra rather than Peter as the Petros. But the two words are of the
same source. And then you read some of the
commentaries and they say that the word Petros, Peter's name,
is derived from Petra, but as I looked, Petros is the primary
word. It's the primary word. Beware
when making haste to refute error. There's two reasons why. One,
you may miss the truth yourself when you make haste. This is
not about just trying to prove the Roman Catholics are wrong.
And as long as I prove the Roman Catholics are wrong, and as long
as I'm saying Christ is the rock of the church, then everything's
honky dory. That's true. But that's not what
Christ was teaching here. That's the first. You may miss
the truth. But in making haste to refute error, you may also
create an error of your own. That's the two reasons why you
have to be careful about making haste in refuting error. Now,
of course, there was no promise to Peter here as a future pope. And certainly there is no hint
at papal succession, is there? None of that's here. But Peter
is told he would be this rock. I struggled with that for years.
I was always struggling with no price meant this rock. He
was really talking about himself. It don't work that way. You read
this. Have you struggled with this?
Do you read this and say, it sounds like he's talking about
Peter to me? And then you read the commentaries or you hear
what some preacher said, and they say, well, no, Christ is
the rock, not Peter. No, Peter's the rock Christ is talking about
here. It's that. Read it. When you first read
that, what do you see? He's talking to Peter. He even
goes so far as to say, and I will give unto thee. And that's a
singular thing. I will give unto thee the keys."
Who? This Petros who is going to be
the Petra. That's what he says. And it's
so liberating when you bow to the Spirit of God rather than
trying to force your understanding upon the text. So there was no promise to hear
that Peter is a future pope. A pope is supposed to be infallible.
Isn't that what they say? Well, look at Peter! Right after this, what did he
do? No, Lord, this ain't gonna be unto you. He said, actually
said, this is hilarious. Be it far means this is hilarious.
Hilaros, something along that line. This is hilarious, Lord.
It ain't gonna happen to you. And Christ had just told him,
though, thou art Peter. Thou art Petros and upon Petra
I will build my church. Now although this is true, as
I say, yet the commentators force their meanings on the text just
trying to refute Rome. Either Peter's not, Christ wasn't
really meaning Peter, he meant himself. And I've even been there,
I'm not trying to be hypercritical, or Christ meant what happened
to Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to thee, but my father,
that's the rock he was referring to, or the confession he made.
All of these things are sound, they're all true, but they don't
take away from who Christ was talking to here. As a matter
of fact, as I began this study, and I began to read the commentaries,
I began to be more confounded than I ever was. Because when
I looked at the actual linguistics and the grammar, I realized that
I have to force that meaning upon this text and abandon the
linguistics and the grammar of the Greek and the English. Well,
linguistics and grammar deal with several things, but I'll
give you four of the main ones here. Morphology, that means
the meaning of words and sometimes how they change. There is syntax,
that's the way words relate to one another. There is phonology,
the way they sound, and in the Greek it's very important because
certain other words are derived from single words. They didn't
just come up with new words, they just added to the same sound.
to express more detail, or whatever it might be. And there's also
semantics. The more I studied these things,
the more I realized when Christ said, and I say unto thee that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock, and this rock, this rock,
there is but one nearest antecedent, and that is Petros. You can't go back all the way
up to the, well, flesh and blood didn't reveal them to thee. You
can't go all the way back up, the Greek don't allow it. Now
while Petra is masculine, and this rock both is feminine, and
the general course, the general rule in the Greek is the gender
of words had nothing to do with sexuality. It had to do with
word association. Yet Christ is still making a
point here. Peter himself is not the rock,
but he is still this rock. Are you confounded? Because most
people use this to say, Christ is my foundation and I don't
care what any other man said. You better be careful. You better
be careful. As God willing, I will show you
why this morning. When you read this, can you not sense this?
Who's he talking to? He's talking to Peter. And if
you struggled with that over and over, trying to make this
rock mean something other than Peter, the reason is because
you're fighting against what Christ said. That's why. Now listen to the scripture concerning
Christ as the rock. I'm not going to go read them
because of time. I'm not going back and read all of these. There
are three main places in the New Testament that speak of Christ
as rock. First of all, there's 1 Corinthians
10 verses 1 through 4 where Paul says that Christ was that rock
that was amidst in the midst of our brethren in the Old Testament. That rock that followed them
was Christ. It was him. There were theophanies
in the Old Testament. That is, pre-incarnate appearances
of God in human form. He didn't take upon himself a
human form, but he appeared in human form before Christ was
actually incarnated. That's called a theophany. I
don't know what you call it. I'm sure there's a theological
word for it, but Christ manifests himself as a what? A rock. Now
you may not gather that from the Old Testament. I don't know.
I haven't went back and looked at it in all detail. But Paul
being moved to the Spirit said that rock that followed them
was Christ. So Christ is rock. Secondly,
he's the promised rock of offense to the Jews. Romans 9 verse 33. Let me just read that one. Romans 9.33, I know Joe said,
and he's right, most people don't even like to deal with Romans
9, but the last verse, as it is written, behold, I lay, who's
the I there? Well that's God, he's quoting
from the Old Testament. He's quoting Isaiah, who is quoting
God. As it is written, behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of what? A fence. God meant him to be this. When
you reject that, you reject that part of Christ. And you can't
take Christ partially. He is bowed to for who He is,
in all that He is. But it also says, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Ashamed of what? Even
ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed that God Almighty
ordained him as a rock of offense. I'm not ashamed of that. Why? Because that's who Christ is.
Right? Now go back to 1 Peter again,
chapter 2. I read it to you. First Peter
chapter two, where Peter says, wherefore, verse six, wherefore
also it is contained in scripture, the law said, wherever words
could be established, at least in the mouth of two, at least
two or three witnesses. Here's your second witness. Actually,
it'll make the third one because we're quoting back then. Wherefore
also it is contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, the chief
cornerstone. Do you see it? Christ is the
chief cornerstone. But Peter was also a rock. And every other apostle was a
rock. And they were the rocks in the
foundation. And we are rocks built on top
of that foundation. And if you're not being built
on top of that foundation, which has both the rock and these rocks,
then you're in the wrong building. That's exactly it. You're a different
kind of builder. You might be a stick house. He fulfilled the promise both
positively and negatively. Look. Behold I lay in Zion a
chief cornerstone, delect precious. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe
he's precious. But what? Unto other people what? Not so. Not so. We just need to convince
people that he is like this. They're a part of those that
group that was what? Appointed under this you ain't
gonna convince them or nothing In our text Christ refers not
to himself as any rock, but rather as the architect You see it Now
turn back to it Christ is not referring to himself as any rock
here He refers to himself as the architect. And I say unto
thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my
church. Peter is not building the church.
Christ is building the church. But he began to build the church
upon who? Peter. Peter. Why? What's he talking about?
Peter was given apostolic authority. Yes. Apostolic authority. And yet he was a fallible man.
But, when God Almighty directly moved him to speak, his word
was Christ's word. Yeah. Yeah. When God Almighty
moved him to write the epistles he wrote, that's God Almighty
speaking there. So our text, in our text, Christ
refers not to himself as any rock, but rather as the architect.
I will build. He's building the church. Here
Christ issues forth Peter's upcoming apostolic authority. We know
Peter was not infallible because even after the apostolic authority
was fully issued in upon him and he was baptized by the Holy
Ghost on the day of Pentecost, he still had his troubles. Did
he not? Still had his troubles. He was
fallible and sinful just like we are. But yet you better listen
to what's in this book. You better listen to this book
when these men spoke. Better listen to it. You see,
this truth and this does away with this independent spirit.
Well, I'm built on Jesus Christ. I don't care about anything else.
You want to care about this book, these words spoken by these men,
or you reject God and you reject Christ. Later, Christ confirmed this
of all the apostles, yea, even the church. If you'll turn, I'm
not going to, Matthew 18, the second time he ever mentions
church, and he says, ye shall have the king, to the king. whatever
you bind, all of you. See? We're all stones. And according to our Lord Jesus'
words. Now we have guidance. This is
our only rule of faith and practice. We don't make up our standards.
Our standard is before us. So much so that if there's a
person who becomes personally offensive to another and they
ultimately won't listen to the church, what did he say to do? Put them out. Whatever you bind on earth should
be bound on earth. Whatever you bind in heaven will
be bound in heaven. Paul puts it in proper perspective. Turn to Ephesians. Gotta move along. Ephesians chapter
2. last few verses of the chapter.
Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners. Who's
he writing to? Specifically, the Gentiles amongst
the Ephesian assembly there. Now therefore, ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built. Now who is doing
the building? The architect's doing the building.
I will build my church. Right? But look, and are built
upon the foundation of the What? Apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner. You see it? They're a
part of the foundation. They're a part of the foundation.
Look, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth
unto a holy, what? Temple. Now the temple was made
out of rock. Wasn't it? They hewed out stones. They hewed out rock to build
the temple. Not a tabernacle. Although we
are a tabernacle. We're a dwelling of the Spirit
of God. But here we're talking about
the church. And the church is a stone building.
in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you are built together
for the habitation of God through the Spirit." In other words,
you ain't a part of the building if you're out there by yourself.
He ain't got little blocks of rock all out there. He's building
one building. All together. Fitly framed together. And if you're not a part of the
building, you ain't a part at all. Somebody says you got to
be a part of the church. Oh, yeah, you got to be a part
of the church Yes, sir, because it's the church for whom Christ
died Now if that's you know that you mean I got to be here Why
did I just say you got to be a part of the church because
the church is those for whom Christ died I? And those for
whom Christ died, when He calls them out, He also calls them
unto something. They want to gather with other
believers. Joe just read the truth of it. If God Almighty
fathered you, you'll love those that are fathered of Him. And
when you love somebody, you want to be around them and with them.
If you don't, you're a liar when you say you love them. I've used
the example, if I tell my wife I love you, but I don't want
to spend time with her, she's going to know I'm a liar. Right? It's just the way it is. When
people play these, we don't have to go to church to be saved.
No, but when God Almighty saves you, that's where your heart
will be. That's where your desire will be. That's where your longings
will be. That's where your priorities
will be. Because why? First of all, even the architect
is the chief corner. And that architect is building
his building, his temple. And he began with the apostles
and prophets, not prophets and apostles. These are New Testament
apostles and prophets. That's the proper perspective.
Right there it is. Peter was a part of the foundation. So much so that when you listen
to Christ's words, remember in Luke 10 verse 1, and he sent
out also 70 others. And you look then when he sums
in verse 16, he said, whoever hears you does what? Hears me. And whoever doesn't hear you
is not hearing me. And those that are not hearing
me are not hearing the Father that sent me. They speak for
Christ. They are not Christ's vicars.
They don't take His place. But the mode of God's communication
to humanity is through other humans. He sent His Son into
this world and He spoke to us by His Son. But His Son has now
returned. He is not individually coming
down here calling people and making a little self person,
a little self save over here. He's gathering in and building
a building. Here are Luke's words, Acts 2,
verse 41 and 42, what they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship. If you're outside of that, you're
not a part of the church. Right? It doesn't matter about
it, as long as I love the Lord and love His people. Joe mentioned
that too. It don't happen that way. It's just not the way Christ
is building this church. Hear Paul's words, turn to Hebrews
chapter 2. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should, it says, let them slip, and actually the
better translation is slip away from them. For if the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of a reward, how shall we escape? if we neglect so great salvation
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard him. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Why do I not have
to work miracles and all those things today? Why do I not need
all them signs? The foundation's already laid.
It's already done. It's already been proven, David
writes, through the apostles and prophets. This man was the
Christ. There's the chief cornerstone.
The actual foundation's already laid. And God is building His church
on that foundation. And it includes what these men
say. What they said. So much so that even in Romans
10, you know the passage. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." That don't mean Jesus' name is
a lucky rabbit's foot, or just some talisman, or just some chant.
He said you can't call if you don't believe first. You can't
believe unless you've heard and you can hear that God sends somebody
to preach to you. He's not going to come down himself
personally and visit you in your bedroom. He will send a messenger
to you. that's a part of the body, the
church, one of those lively stones, and he'll send that person to
you with the gospel, and if you are ever a part, he will build
you into his church, or however the best way is to say it, David,
but he'll put you in the church by that instrumentality, or you
won't be a part of it. Well, what about Cornelius? Cornelius was while this was
all being established. He's not gonna send some angel down to
you. He's going to send another sinner that's a sinner just like
you to preach the gospel to you and he's going to call you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. I've never met one person
that heard a message from an angel or from God himself that
ever believed the truth. It's always some lie and trash.
Always. If you hear from God, if I hear
from God, it will be by God's instrumentality according to
Christ's building. I will build my church this way.
You know what he's saying? Upon this rock. Now yes, he is
the rock, but there's also this rock. And you're not a part of
the building if you're not being built on that foundation. Is
that clear enough? That's quite simple now, ain't
it? I don't have to read Matthew chapter 16 anymore and wonder
what he was talking about if you just bow down to what he
said. Now next week, the church belongs
to Christ. I know it belongs to Him by redemption,
but I mean more than that. He said, I will build my church. my church. Father, be with us
as we continue, as we take this table. May it truly be in remembrance
of thee. I ask it in Christ's name. Amen. And as I said, I asked Joe if
he would do this this morning. So Joe, you come on up here and
take care of this place.